Didn't get the email...

So, while snorkeling in paradise, I wasn't following Hurricane Ike as much as I might have. But I did pick up that, while it is nowhere near as intense a storm as some feared, it was still pretty nasty.

Got back late last night, got up at the crack of noon today and read this on the front page of the Local Fish Wrap:

SWAT commander Sgt. Rodney Harrison and five other members of the Port Arthur Police Department drove a 2 1/2-ton truck into the waters to search for victims in Sabine Pass near the Louisiana border Sunday morning.

The waters were so intense and the roads so blocked that a gear shift broke off in the driver's hand. After two hours of struggle, the team had little to show for their work other than sopping wet clothes and exhaust-streaked faces. They even dodged an alligator.

"You have people that have families at home who put their lives on the line to come out here and save somebody that made a bad decision," Harrison said. "I don't think that's right. I don't think that's fair to everybody."

Meanwhile, America's Fish Wrap of Record (except they deny being any such thing, because it would prevent them from taking sides) had this tidbit:

As rain started again on Sunday, many people in Galveston reached their limit and headed to the shelter at Ball High School. The state sent dozens of buses to ferry residents to San Antonio.

“I will go anywhere but here,” Shannika Jones said as she stood at the shelter with her sons, both under age 2, in a line to board a bus. “My babies are getting sick.” Behind her were two rows of chairs filled with elderly people, some with open wounds.

“Next time they should warn people about this, not the storm itself,” Ms. Jones said.

WHY IN THE HELL DO YOU THINK THEY WERE TELLING YOU TO GET OUT, YOU STUPID...

Ahem. Allow me to rephrase that.

WHAT IN THE HELL WERE YOU DOING AFTER KATRINA, YOU DUMB...

Sigh.

Too bad it's too late to remove her from the gene pool.

I had fond hopes that, since the storm was going to hit Texas, that the residents would act like adults, and, if they did not leave, at least accept that they had made a choice and, well, I Was Wrong.